Obituaries / PASSINGS

Tom Murphy, 39; Irish actor won a Tony Award in only Broadway role

Tom Murphy, 39, an Irish actor who was best known internationally for his Tony Award- winning performance in "The Beauty Queen of Leenane," died of complications from Hodgkin's disease Oct. 6 in Dublin.

He received the 1998 Tony for best featured actor in a play for his only Broadway role, as restless Ray Dooley in Martin McDonagh's widely acclaimed "Beauty Queen." His performance injected laughs into the four-actor tragedy about a lonely country woman's last shot at love.

Murphy was born in what is now Zimbabwe, where his father was working as a construction worker and his mother as a nurse, and grew up in suburban Dublin.

He studied drama at Trinity College Dublin and became a mainstay in Ireland's theater scene before his breakthrough with "Beauty Queen."

Murphy later acted in plays on London's West End and in Irish films and television.